We are committed to ensuring that all our residents can peacefully enjoy the use of their homes and communities.

Where this is not possible because of reported harassment, we will take a victim-centred approach to investigating and tackling the problem.

Everyone is protected from harassment under the law, but the Equality Act 2010 provides protection from harassment on the basis of the following protected characteristics:

age

disability

gender reassignment

marriage and civil partnership

pregnancy and maternity

race

religion or belief

sex

sexual orientation

What is harassment?

Harassment is defined as unwanted conduct related to a relevant protected characteristic which has the purpose or the effect of violating an individual’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for that individual. Under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, harassment is defined as “a course of conduct” “alarming a person or causing the person distress”.

Individuals are also protected from harassment because of association and perception (i.e. because of whom they have regular contact with or because someone thinks they have a particular protected characteristic).

We will protect and support to the best of our abilities any of our residents suffering from harassment by a third party by:

encouraging the reporting of harassment

supporting the people experiencing harassment

taking action against the perpetrators of harassment

encouraging others to support complainants and give evidence

promoting where possible participation in multi-agency arrangements to combat harassment

monitoring the effectiveness of the actions we take

Where we can take action

We can only take legal action where the harassment is carried out by one of our residents. If a resident is the victim of harassment and the perpetrator is not a resident we will offer support and advice on relevant support groups and assist with rehousing if required.

If the perpetrator is a resident but the victim is not we will advise and support the victim, then take appropriate action against the perpetrator based upon the evidence available.

If both the victim and the perpetrator are residents, we can take legal action if we have appropriate supporting evidence and the consent of the complainant.